VOA标准英语2010年-Behind Policy Debate, There's Human Dr

The southern U.S. border with Mexico is the focus of political debate over illegal immigration.  But human dramas play out every day along the border.  Our correspondent reports from near Nogales, Arizona where the conflict pits U.S. ranchers and residents against migrants trying to cross the border illegally.

Some property owners in southern Arizona, like Glenn Spencer, look out over Mexico from their back porches.  Spencer says he is trying to stop a flood of illegal migrants.

On part of his property is a massive border fence more than five meters-high.  But it stops abruptly¹ and is replaced by a small vehicle barrier that can easily be crossed by anyone on foot.  Spencer gestures to an old barbed wire fence a few meters away.

"That is Mexico right there," said Glenn Spencer. "They come right through that hole in the fence.  There is no fence.  They come across this barrier, right up here.  The Border Patrol cameras cannot see us here."

The U.S. Border Patrol often checks this area, including Spencer's property, but he says many border crossers still get through. 

Spencer created a private organization called American Border Patrol to monitor the border.  He flies over the area in a small private plane.  At his home, Spencer displays computer photographs taken along the border.

"It is wide open," he said.

His group has been criticized as racist², but Spencer says this has nothing to do with race, only with border security. 

Across the border in Mexico, the quiet town of Naco receives a steady flow of border crossers who have been arrested and deported³ from the U.S. side. 

The Migrant Resource Center is run by American volunteers who hear stories of dangerous crossings.  The volunteers offer food and medical help.

Arizona artist Peter Young helps at the center.

"The people we deal with are the people who have tried to cross the border and who have failed," said Peter Young.

Young says some crossers make it through the border region after several tries, but others become discouraged and give up.

Some stories end tragically⁴.  More than 200 suspected border crossers died last year in the desert near Tucson.  Drug cartels control much of the human smuggling⁵ and some migrants are victims of violence.  A U.S. rancher was also killed this year, and authorities say it probably was the work of a Mexican drug smuggler⁶.  Migrant women have been raped⁷, and some have not survived the journey.   

In a small apartment in Nogales, Mexico, run by a Catholic charity, a woman named Artemia tells her story.  She was abandoned by her smuggler in the desert and now she faces a dilemma⁸.

Artemia says she lived in the U.S. city of Indianapolis, Indiana for seven years.  She returned to Mexico after her father died and was arrested twice trying to return with her husband and 19-year-old daughter.  She has two American-born sons who are five and seven-years-old, and who are staying with her sister in the United States.  Artemia says the boys might have to join her in Mexico.

She gets help from Catholic priests and nuns⁹ who run a charity called the Kino Border Initiative, named after Father Eusebio Kino, an early Spanish missionary¹⁰ in what is now Mexico and Arizona.

Most migrants are from small villages, and Catholic priest Pete Neeley says many are victimized at the border.

"[T]rusting somebody they should not trust and losing their money or losing their identification papers, or whatever they are carrying," said Pete Neeley.

Church members offer food and guidance.

American priest Sean Carroll says border crossers want jobs, and others want to join their families.

"Because they are living in poverty or living in destitution," said Sean Carroll. "They want a better life for their families and/or reunification.  They have children; they have spouses¹¹; they have parents; they have brothers and sisters in the United States."

To the north, in Arizona, resident Bill Odle wants more border security, but he feels sympathy for the migrants - including a woman that he met on his property.

"She is lost," said Bill Odle. "Her group left her.  She is in a foreign country.  Her story is about how bad us gringos are.  So it is really heart-wrenching.  Real sad."

Those who live and work on the border say the problems are complicated, involving demands for better security and pleas for help from desperate migrants.  They say these human stories often are lost behind the policy debates.

 

1 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

2 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

3 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。

5 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

6 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

7 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

8 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

9 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

10 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

11 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句